I Constructed in My Mind a Vast, Panoramic Picture: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint and Postmodern, Postdenominational Mormonism

Most contemporary portrayals of Mormonism are heavily influenced by the nineteenth century. It has been more than a hundred years since mainstream Mormonism officially encouraged the scandalous behaviors—polygamy and blood atonement, for example—that generated the river of lurid tales that flowed from nineteenth-century presses. Yet despite the passing of time and the gradual taming of Mormonism, contemporary authors and auteurs tend to portray the religion in ways that invite comparison with their pulpy forebears. Television and film provide the most recent examples, with HBO’sBig Loveand 2007’s limited- release filmSeptember Dawnplaying, or at least attempting